First Responders
By Lisa Schick
It’s one o’clock in the morning; a call wakes you up. A voice on the other end of the line says “highway one, westbound lane, red car with flashers on, 45 male, chest pains.” You press to accept and jump out of bed to get dressed and out the door. You rush to the town hall, through the door and to the closet at the back. You grab the almost 50 kilogram equipment bag, the defibrillator and the two metre long backboard, run back across the hall and out the door to shove the equipment in your car. On the way to the crash site you go through your training in your head: what can cause chest pains, what you should do. Finally you see the flashing lights and get ready to get out of the car and take control. You are a first responder.
The first responders program was implemented in Saskatchewan in 1996 and the picturesque community of Mortlach was one of the first to have a group. When an ambulance is called to a rural area or the Trans-Canada Highway the dispatchers send out an ambulance but also contact first responders from the area. The first responders are volunteers with advanced first aid training for both medical and trauma emergencies.
Cheryl Searle is the current director of the Mortlach first responders and is also a registered nurse.
According to Searle the mandate of the first responders is “to provide care till the ambulance arrives and then assist the paramedics until the person is transported.” Four years ago the Mortlach group had only two responders and was in danger of closing down but Searle picked up the phone and found the volunteers she needed.
She knows how important the program is for the community and not just for the medical care. The first responders have a small town touch: they stay behind with the family after the ambulance leaves and help them through the situation. They offer to help them drive to the hospital, to call someone for them, to help them pack an overnight bag and even to lock the house for them when they leave.
This attention is also given to those who do not live in the community. Joline Graves, 31, explains they’re even working after the ambulance arrives, locating personal belongings in the ditch and in the car that cannot be left. “(The patients) just had a wreck they’re scared out of their minds, they’re hurt and all they can think is where’s the picture of my baby? So if you’re looking in the snow for a picture of a baby that’s what you’ll do,” Graves said.
The community members that have needed the responders in a crisis know how valuable the service is for them and how significant that personal touch really is. Gail Bossence, 66, has had to call an ambulance for both her mother and her mother-in-law at different times. The first responders showed up and stabilized both of them when they needed it and kept them calm until the ambulances came. “It’s pretty amazing what that can do... (it takes) half an hour for sure to get an ambulance here and if you aren’t stabilized who knows... it really is kind of the home-town touch,” said Bossence.
The first responders are volunteers. They do not get paid for their time, the fuel it takes to get to the sites, or the toll it can take on them emotionally. When a responder gets called to a particularly bad trauma they aren’t allowed to respond to any more calls until they undergo critical incidents stress debriefing. When it’s a small community and the responders know the people in the accident, it can be even more stressful. “With local people you have the added emotional ties because this is somebody you know, it might even be a family member. Sometimes I’m coming out of Moose Jaw and the ambulance passes me and I’m (thinking), ‘Are they going to pull into Mortlach? Where are they stopping and who is it?’” Said Searle.
Graves knows not everyone has the personality to be able to work under that kind of pressure but she says a responder just has to look at it clinically and do the job. “It’s kinda like the kids’ needles: they suck, the kids are going to cry but you gotta do it, end of story. Afterwards is where you have the meltdown,” she said.
But the time they put in, the long hours and the stressful situations are all worth it to those who choose it. Helping people in her community in a significant way is the real reward for Searle, “It’s people that you know.”
